The 5 Steps of EBP

Evidence-based practice consists of five steps:

1. Ask a searchable clinical question;2. Find the best evidence to answer the question;3. Appraise the evidence;4. Apply the evidence with clinical expertise, taking the patient's wants/needs into consideration;5. Evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the process.

EBP Resources

University of Toronto Centre for Evidence-based MedicineThe website that accompanies the evidence-based practice text by Sackett et al. (2000) entitled "Evidence-Based Medicine: How to practice and teach EBM". It contains links for a glossary of EBP terms, worksheets for critically appraising individual articles on diagnosis, therapy, prognosis, etc. among other resources, including handy online calculators for plugging in numbers to determine sensitivity, specificity, number needed to treat, odds ratios, etc.

What is EBP

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) or evidence based practice (EBP), is the judicious use of the best current evidence in making decisions about the care of the individual patient. EBP also integrates clinical expertise and takes patient desires, values, and needs into consideration.

Dr. David Sackett and his colleagues at McMasters University in Ontario, Canada, initially proposed EBM.